Connecticut housing starts fell for the third straight month in October, all but assuring the state's full-year count of new homebuilding permits will fall short for a third year.

A total 331 permits for single- and multi-family dwellings were issued last month vs. 507 granted in Oct. 2017 in 104 communities regularly surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau, the state Department of Economic and Community Development said Wednesday.

With two months of permit tallies to go this year, the statewide count through October was 3,185.